2010 FSR XC Rear Suspension Noise

Hi all. I have a 2010 FSR XC with an X-Fusion RLA shock. I bought the bike used last May and am having an issue with a honking, creaking noise from the rear suspension. The sound is worst when the rear suspension compresses on high speed banked corners, but can be heard just about any time there is a large amount of compression in the rear suspension. It also feels like I am getting quite a bit of stiction in the rear suspension.

I have had the bike in at the dealer twice for the problem. The first time they said the pivots all looked fine and the shock just needed to be lubed. This solved the problem for about 100 miles, and then it returned. I took the bike back again and they said things looked fine, but they lubed the shock just to be certain. The 2nd time there was a slight improvement, but the noise and stiction was still there and is getting worse.

So, thoughts on what I can check? I am starting to doubt the dealer knows what they are doing.

I had a noise from my Spec camber which I thought was coming from the rear suspension on compression, but it turned out to be a creaking saddle and/or seatpost clamp.
Could your noise be coming from other than your bikes pivots / shock ?

I had a noise from my Spec camber which I thought was coming from the rear suspension on compression, but it turned out to be a creaking saddle and/or seatpost clamp.
Could your noise be coming from other than your bikes pivots / shock ?

Rear quick release or Derailleur hanger? Sometimes they work together to make noise.
Tighten all the bearings of rear suspension? Shock mounting hardware?
BB?
Pedals?
Headset/Stem?
Lube each point individually until the noise stops.

If you can reproduce it in G-outs then just troubleshoot through process of elimination. Carry a small bottle of Tri-flow or something similar and put a few drops in each area and ride same area again.

Your bike shop will never be able to narrow it down, they will just shotgun parts until it stops. You need to help narrow it down.

Many times it's just metal-to-metal contact that gets dry, gritty and noisy. I had some creaking with my old Stumpjumper and it was the pivots, but have also seen QR skewers (the cam on the skewer itself or where it contacts the frame), derailleur hangers, pedals, crank/BB, saddle, seatpost, seatpost clamp, stem, and bar all creak.

Make sure you don't have any cracks in the frame anywhere.

If no cracks, take off, clean, grease and re-install anything/everything we've suggested. Go one at a time if you want to see what it is, but doing everything at once won't hurt a thing.

Check your brake lines as well where they may contact the frame especially on the rear triangle as its a known area where brake lines can and do rub and in some cases have gone through and wrecked a frame.

Solved!

Thanks all, I figured it out. griffter18 was closest to the pin on this one.

I could easily replicate the noise by riding off the curb in front of my house. I confirmed it wasn't the seat, seat post, or seat clamp. I checked for frame cracks and found none. Next I took about half the air out of the shock and the noise was much worse. Going off of griffter18's comment I took all the air out of the shock and fully compressed it to see if I could find any place where a cable was rubbing where it shouldn't and hit pay dirt. When the rear suspension was compressed the rear derailleur cable was contacting the tire.

You can clearly see it in this photo:

I took the rear wheel off and can see where the tire was digging a hole into the cable. I also think the black zip-tie visible in this photo doesn't belong:

It also appears there is another cable routing point where the zip-tie had broken near the end of the swing arm:

I removed the black zip-tie that I don't think belongs and replaced the broken zip-tie at the end of the swing arm. After that the noise is gone! I'll obviously need a new cable, but at least that is much cheaper than other things it could have been.